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1962: A true storm of the century

My, how things have changed at the Shore since the great Ash Wednesday storm.

Tuesday marks the 50th anniversary of a true "storm of the century," a nor'easter that ravaged the Shore and the rest of the Midatlantic.

The Inquirer will be publishing our story about it in Sunday's paper, and those who lived through it will never forget it.

In New Jersey, alone, it killed seven people and caused over $900 million in damages. It also damaged or destroyed over 50,000 buildings.

It was the storm that got the U.S. government heavily into the shore-protection business, and, counterintuitively was followed by an amazing coastal building boom.

The run-up in real estate values has been amazing. For example, in Avalon the total value of 1962 property was about $25 million; today that would be $8.2 billion, with a "b."

Even adjusting for inflation we come up with a 44-fold increase in total market value.

We'll be blogging more about this next week. In the meantime, look for Sunday's story, and, as always, we welcome your comments.